Views are being sought on a bid to 'bring home' a statue of Sir Titus Salt.

Members of the Saltaire Project Team want to move the 124-year-old statue from Bradford's Lister Park to the village Sir Titus founded in time for 2003 - the bi-centenary of his birth.

They want the statue to be put in Salts Mill Road, which they envisage becoming an alternative 'visitor gateway' to historic Saltaire.

The scheme would cost at least £15,000 and would be funded through donations and private subscriptions.

But Councillor Phil Thornton, chairman of the multi-agency project team, said before formally submitting a proposal to the Council they wanted to gauge people's opinions.

The project will be discussed at the forthcoming Neighbourhood Forums in Saltaire, Frizinghall, Manningham, Heaton and Queens Road.

Coun Thornton said: "We want to seek the views of local residents because if the scheme hasn't got the community's support it will be very difficult to proceed as we're hoping to do it through donations and subscriptions rather than public money.

"At the moment the statue is fairly isolated in the park and prone to vandalism so we hope that the communities will agree that the right place for it to be is as close to the centre of Saltaire as we can get it.

"We've been looking at a gateway site, which will be easily visible from the road.''

He said: "What we need is for local people to have their say by coming along to the forums or by writing to their councillors to let them know what they think.''

Carved from white Italian Carrarar marble, the ornate 14-tonne statue - a mini version of the Albert Memorial - has been in Lister Park since its move from outside Bradford's City Hall more than 100 years ago.

T&A Opinion

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.